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Victims ask for crackdown on hate crimes

Posted: Wednesday, February 23, 2000

By RUSS BYNUMAssociated Press Writer

ATLANTA (AP) - Several hours after Palm Sunday services ended at Red Oak United Methodist Church, parishioners found themselves watching from the cemetery outside as the church was consumed by fire set by arsonists.

``I stood there in the graveyard with my members, singing while it burned down,'' said the Rev. John W. Pace, pastor of the black church in Stockbridge. ``It was hopeless. We could not stop the fire.''

Pace says his congregation was victimized by a hate crime. And he wasn't alone Tuesday in asking the House Judiciary Committee to approve stiffer penalties for crimes motivated by race, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

Committee members also heard from a rabbi whose synagogue was vandalized and a gay man who was assaulted with a knife at his throat.

``Terrorism has an impact both on the victims and an impact on the community at large,'' said Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, the bill's author. ``Hate crimes are terrorism because of that fear.''

Barron Segar, a professional fund-raiser, told the committee how he was surrounded by eight men after leaving a gay nightclub in Atlanta in 1992. One of the men grabbed Segar from behind and held a knife to his throat.

``This is what we do to (gays),'' the man said, using an epithet for homosexuals. The attacker kicked Segar to the ground and the men scattered.

``It lives with me every day. I still have nightmares,'' Segar said. ``But my attackers don't. They served two weeks in jail.''

Rabbi S. Robert Ichay of Congregation Or VeShalom recalled how the synagogue in DeKalb County was vandalized last year with spray painted Nazi swastikas and the words ``bloodsuckers go home.''

Since then, Ichay said, the congregation has had a police officer at every service and function - including weddings.

``We sleep at night,'' he said. ``But always with an eye open, in case something happens.''

Fort's bill passed the Senate by just two votes earlier this month. The House committee plans to vote Thursday on whether to pass it on to the full House.

The bill allows judges to impose additional fines of up to $15,000 and extra jail time of up to five years in cases where they determine the victims were chosen because of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, gender, disability or sexual orientation.

But some committee members seemed to question whether the bill would have much impact when judges in many cases are imposing sentences well below the maximum punishment.